Antique lighting - mystery from beyond the candle smoke

By: John Clarke


It's important to have much light in the modern furniture environment. But how did those live in the past. If you are a fan of the old times where there wasn't much light, but a lot of curvy lines instead of modern simplistic approach - welcome!

Antique lighting refers mostly to the light that are made with a lot of curves, but do not give much light. That has it's historical meaning. As you might know - very bright light appeared only when Edison invented light bulb. Before it there were only candles. They couldn't provide much lighting, however it still was better than not having any light at all.

With modern movie industry portraing old time in sepia-tones and with very dim lighting - we are forced to think of antique lighting as of something not very bright. And that's confrimed by the vendors.

Even so the modern lighting is cross-breeding with antiques as old form and new energy-efficient lights appear. Many cities even consider putting old-fashioned lighting fixtures on the streets, sometimes even in downtown areas to create a new (well, actually antique) mood in the area.

With the rise in antique furniture business that owes it to lots of houses sold that hasn't been renowated lately, we are seeing higher demand to match antique furniture to the lighting. That's where lighting of antique nature comes out.

Modern craftsmen are creating lighting fixtures that resemble those of previous centuries, cross-breeding them with miniature light bulbs and incadescent lights, creating an century old feeling that can be incorporated into modern home.

Krypton light bulbs are sometimes used in modern environment providing additional light for those loving to read a book, relaxing on their sofa sets. I wouldn't recommend mixing modern sofa sets with olde-tyme lights as this just doesn't work right.

However if you have an old-styled burgundy leather chair or loveseat with mathcing burgundy ottoman, you might consider buying an renaissance-styled light to add to your home ceiling lighting.

Some really great idea is to have exterior wall lighting in antique style to create the special warm feeling for your guests or even just people passing by your house.

Torch lamps are also considered antique as they resemble even more old times when the castles were for kings and they were strolling around big corridors where the torches weren't even flickering due to fact that there wasn't much air movement. Makes you wonder how to breathe in these torch-lighted corridors as flames are destroying breathable air. Anyway, th emodern torch lamps solve it without the possiblity of lamps being a reason for fire.

Yet in the past it was an issue. Antique oil lamps were pretty much flammable and I guess it was not really safe to use it for long time. Beside the fact that yet again it was an breathing issue. I guess they didn't have air-tight windows like we do now, so it was better.

Brass lamps also create a great feeling of the old times. Brass is not a material often used in contemporary lighting, yet it was in the past. It was much easier to work with brass than with steel. But modern technology changed that. However this fact gives us an impression that brass lamps create more antique feel than those of steel or brushed aliminum.

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Information about the Author:

John Clarke is the columnist for Furnitory magazine.